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Preferred Citation

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Langdon Manor Books with funds from the Lyon Gardiner Tyler Library Endowment, 2018.

Scope and Contents

99 letters and photographs from Howard Emmons Morgan, Jr. who served in the Army in a segregated unit during World War II as part of Company A of the 949th Air Base Security Regiment and later the 1322nd Engineers General Service Regiment based out of Camp Swift, Texas and Hawaii. Most of his active service was in Hawaii and the South Pacific and Morgan comments at length about his observations of the flora and fauna of these areas. Morgan identifies as a Ramapough Mountain Indian and while he is attached to a segregated unit, does not see himself as an African American. On the contrary, Morgan writes often of his dislike of many of the African Americans in his unit, refers to them using denigrating slurs, and even writes about his fear of his skin becoming darker from time in the sun. Included with the collection are eight typescripts for prayer services for his unit.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Ramapo Mountain people
• Segregation
• United States. Army. Service Command Unit, 1322nd
• World War, 1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945--Pacific Area